


A Lost Little Robin

by Flikky



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-28
Updated: 2015-02-28
Packaged: 2018-03-15 15:22:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3452117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flikky/pseuds/Flikky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fanfic Prompt: Once Upon A Time/DCU, adoptions.  Dick Grayson of Storybrooke's been a ward of the Saint Meissa Convent since his parents died.  But when the curse is finally broken, he remembers his life in the Enchanted Forest when he wasn't alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Lost Little Robin

It was chaos around town after Regina's curse was finally lifted from Storybrooke. So many people who'd been separated from their family and friends and other loved ones and who'd spent the past thirty years walking right by them without a second glance trying to find one another now. Had anyone been lost in the curse? Had anyone been left behind?

Storybrooke was a small town, but there was still a whole kingdom's worth of people in it, and all of them were searching for someone. And the former fairies at the Sisters of Saint Meissa kindly did whatever they could to help their fellow displaced townsfolk reconnect.

But unfortunately, that meant that, aside from trying to get their magic back, they were neglecting many of the needs of the convent. Including their ward.

Dick Grayson of Storybrooke had been taken in by the Sisters when his parents had been tragically killed in a boating accident. He alone had survived and he'd lived at the convent ever since; a lone, exuberant little boy among a small, very private group of devout, modest women. He was the only kid in the entire town who seemed to enjoy going to school more than getting to go home, and the highlight of his year was helping the Sisters with the Miner's Day fundraiser.

He was lonely and he was sad, but he was taken care of.

At least until the curse was broken and the Sisters became so intent on helping the rest of the town that they almost seemed to forget they had a ward. In truth, they didn't really know themselves if Dick had anyone else, and assumed when Dick didn't come to them asking for help, that he'd been just as alone in the Enchanted Forest as he'd been in Storybrooke. That was okay, though, Dick understood, there were people out there who were much worse off than he was. Besides, he knew he'd be able to do this himself.

Not as Dick, but as Robin. Robin who had once been a member of the most renown circus in the kingdom. Robin who had watched his parents fall to their deaths during a performance one night. Who had been taken in by a nobleman who'd been there that night, and had taught him everything he'd needed to know to find the man who'd done it, and to make sure no one else went through what he had again.

Dick could remember being Robin now, which meant he could use all of those skills again to track down Bruce.

Though he didn't really know where to start. There were so many people in town, and the only thing he had to go on was Bruce's face the way he remembered it, and the knowledge that the curse changed his life and took away his happy ending. That was the real tricky part, though, because Dick didn't know what Bruce's happy ending had been.

As far as Dick could remember, Bruce hadn't actually been all that happy before the curse. He'd also lost his parents as a kid, but he'd grown up alone and never given himself a chance to grow past it.

So instead of trying to figure out what would be the opposite of Bruce's happy ending, Dick just started out looking in places that seemed to fit the curse's modernizing pattern. The dwarves were originally miners and were made fishermen; the fairies were turned into nuns; Geppetto the carpenter was turned into a handyman; and the Dark One was put in charge of a pawn shop.

Bruce had been in the shipping business. He'd owned ships that traveled to other kingdoms, sending goods and bringing them back; and coordinated caravans, not only allowing for goods to be sent across their own kingdom, but also providing protection against bandits.

With that in mind, Dick started around the docks, passing around a sketch he'd drawn of Bruce and hoping someone there might recognize him. Then he'd moved on to the post office. Then the police department. The local taxi company, the grocery store's and Granny's delivery people ... 

He searched for days, weeks, with no luck -- it seemed that the only help people were able to give him was to ask the Sisters to help him. But they were already so busy helping everyone else and he'd been determined to do this on his own. Besides, he'd been searching for so long without finding anything, how could he expect the Sisters to be able to do any better? He was starting to lose hope. Maybe Bruce had been killed right before the curse had gone into effect and Dick just didn't remember. Maybe when Bruce had been cursed he'd been killed -- the prince had been put into a coma, after all. Or maybe Bruce just hadn't been brought to Storybrooke with the curse at all.

Dick made a round at the hospital, just in case, but he already suspected that Bruce wasn't there either, and he was right. He headed back to the convent that evening, not just dejected, but knowing that even though he'd gotten his memories back, he was still going to be just as alone as he'd been before. The groups of people being happily reunited in front of the convent only seemed to make it worse and Dick hurried through them, trying to bite back his tears until he could get to his room.

At the edges of his awareness, he heard some man pleading with the Sisters to please just check their records again, that whoever he'd been looking for had to be there, had to have come by looking for him. The Mother Superior apologized to him and told him in a tone that said it wasn't the first time she was telling him this that, as far as they were aware, all of the children in town had been reunited with their rightful guardians.

Dick missed what she said after that, but the mention of children made him glance back -- maybe he still had some hope left -- but he only caught a glimpse of the man's back and he just shoved his hands into his pocket and hurried the last few feet to the convent door.

"Robin ... ?"

Dick froze as he reached for the doorhandle, trying to convince himself that he hadn't heard that, desperately wishing that he had.

"Robin, is that- ... Is that you?"

It just wasn't possible. He'd searched Storybrooke up and down, he'd spread his sketch among just about everyone who could possibly have recognized it.

He heard the Mother Superior call out to him, curious and hopeful, "Dick? Could you come here for a moment?"

Her voice was one he'd learned to never disobey (or at least never let her find out that he had), and so he let go of the door, took what he hoped would be a steadying breath, and turned, walking slowly towards the Mother Superior and the man, eyes cast carefully down, afraid that he'd just be disappointed again. That the man was a complete stranger and had him mistaken for another Robin.

But the man who had turned to go just before Dick got inside was staring at him, scrutinizing him as if he hadn't seen him in a lifetime. Then there were hands at his shoulders, large and strong, but shaking with emotion.

Finally Dick looked up. He saw the man who had driven him and a busload of other children to school every day since coming to Storybrooke. And he saw the man who had taken him in during the darkest part of his life and had given him hope that light would return someday.

Bruce's -- Malones' -- face blurred in Dick's vision and he reached out for him just as he dropped to his knees, wrapping Dick up in warm, protective arms.

"I searched for you," Dick told him, breath hitching, tears spilling down his cheeks. "I couldn't find you. No one- No one knew you. I thought- I thought- ... "

Bruce squeezed him tight. "I know," he soothed, his voice thick. "But you'll never have to be alone again. Neither of us will."


End file.
